IMO protects your value

Article Excerpt

IMPERIAL OIL LTD. $22.67, is a buy for safety-conscious investors. The stock (Toronto symbol IMO; Shares o/s: 739.2 million; Market cap: $16.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 3.9%; www.imperialoil.ca) lets you tap Canada’s third-largest publicly traded oil producer, after Suncor (No. 1) and Canadian Natural Resources. ExxonMobil (symbol XOM) owns 69.6% of Imperial. In response to the sharp drop in crude oil prices, Imperial is cutting this year’s capital spending plans by about 30%, to between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion from its earlier range of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion. In addition, the company has identified ways it can cut $500 million from its costs in 2020. Imperial is also suspending its share buyback program. Those savings—which total $1 billion—will let the company maintain quarterly dividend payments of $0.22 a share; the annual rate of $0.88 yields a high 3.9%. In 2019, dividend payments to investors totalled $631 million. million…